Fall of the Albatross
by crazylilalbatross
Summary: River wakes up with no memory of her time on Serenity, in a room she feels like she's been in before. WIP - Rate and Review. Set after BDM
1. Chapter 1

The man stuck the needle into her neck. There was no response. He sat opposite her for a while, going over notes, before leaving the room and coming back with a glass of water.

"Ah, Miss Tam, you're awake."

The voice instantly brought on an already building headache as the words echoed around the room. River pulled at the cold metal chains that kept her arms strapped to the chair and started to laugh

"These chains... You can't keep me here. When I get out, I'll kill you fir..."

"I know about your... talents, but you're not a prisoner here River," the man started to say, sitting back down in the seat opposite.

"In fact, we're here to help you. What do you remember?"

River tried to think back to before she woke but there was nothing, except for flashes of faces she couldn't name.

"I don't..." she started, as the man laid out pictures in front of her.

"When we found you, you were on a ship, do you remember that?"

"...Serenity..." she whispered

"So you do remember?" He said, half asking and half telling.

"You do," she replied with a smirk "Why am I here?"

He pushed the pictures towards her, each had a name written underneath the face

"You're here because these people left you for dead, River. We know that before we found you on board, these people left you to bleed out, locked you in a room, while they got in the shuttles and left. And that they could have saved you. One of them is a doctor."

The man points to one of the pictures

"Do you recognise him?" he asks, and River shakes her head. "He's the doctor, he's the one that could have saved you."

"Why are you telling me this?" River asked, becoming increasingly impatient, and pulling again at the chains.

"Let me get those." the man said, unlocking the chain. River thought about trying to escape but wanted to hear more. She scratched at her arm as he continued. "We've been tracking these people for a long time. Specifically, this man," he said as he pushed another picture over to her "We're not sure of his actual name, and until a few months ago we'd never even seen his face, but this man is the leader of a ring, a collection of rings, that primarily buy, and sell, people. They wipe the person's memories, and use various influences to make them more... complient. We think that's what happened to you, but something went wrong so they left you to die."

"So, you want to do what, exactly? Help me remember them?"

"We think any attempts to recover memories of your captivity could have severe effects on your mental state. No, for now it's better if we don't dig into your experiences on that ship. We just want to offer you the chance for us, and you, to help each other. You remember everything else, don't you? Who you were before?"

River nods. "I do. You're lucky to still be here."

The man pushes one final picture towards River

"Good. because that's who we need. take this picture and you can leave. We want you to track him down and kill him."

"And the rest of them?" she replies, almost hopeful

"They aren't our concern. But that might not be the case for you."

River smiled, picking up the pictures of the others and pocketing them, before walking out the door to the busy city 


	2. Chapter 2

The bar was almost empty when River walked in, other than three people at a table in the corner, and the bartender. The bartender was cleaning tables, avoiding the one that was still full, and the three men were discussing where they should do when they leave, until one spotted River.

"Hey lady... Lady! Come here I'll get ya a drink!"

Another one of them laughed, "you think she'd come over here to talk to you?" he started, and they started arguing amongst each other as River walked past them to the bar.

Sitting herself down on a stall, she waved the bartender over and asked for a double scotch.

"I've been working here for a long time, and I've never had someone walk in and ask for a double scotch that doesn't have something on their mind," he said. "So what's on yours?"

"Other than them?" She jokingly asked, nodding back to the people at the table "I'm looking for someone."

"Can't imagine it'll hard for you to find someone. A place like this, everyone who comes through here is looking for someone."

as the bartender pours out the drink, River pulls a photo out of her pocket

"I'm sure they are, But I'm looking for this man. He owes me something. Have you seen him?"

"I don't give out information like that. you can't think you're the first person to pass through here with a picture, trying to track someone down, right?"

River pulls out the gun from her pocket and without even turning around, shoots at the people sitting at the table in the corner and they all slump over, crashing against the table.

"I'm not the first, I can be the last." she says with a slight smile. "have you seen this man?"

Unnerved by how calm she was, but trying not to panic, the man shakingly picked up the picture and looked at the man's face.

"I... I think so, yes. Him and a couple others were in here the other day."

River reached into her pocket, putting some other pictures on the bar.

"Any of these?" she asked.

The man flicked through the pictures, passing them back to River

"Just the big guy. They were meeting someone, seemed like business to me. If they're still around, chances are they'll be near the docks, they're..."

"I know where they are" River replied, cutting him off, before backing the scotch.

"Wait 10 minutes, then call the cops. Tell them exactly what happened, by the time they've taken your statement I'll be long gone. And hey," she started, pulling out 100 credits and setting it down on the bar, "thanks for the drink." she said, before walking towards the back door.

"Wait!" the man shouted, running after her, "what did he take from you?"

River stopped and whispered something under her breath, before carring on walking and went out the door

"...time..." 


	3. Chapter 3

The air outside had grown colder, and the back of the bar was covered in shadow, the sun setting over the other side. A dark cloud loomed over a mountain range in the distance. As a breeze blew dust into her eyes River squinted, rubbing at them, and knew that the wind would bring a storm her way soon enough.

Once she could open her eyes again, she made her way past a few buildings before turning back onto the main road, passing a group of people rushing towards the bar she'd just left, and began heading towards the docks. It was then that she spotted him, clear as day. It was impossible not to. The large man from the pictures had been thrown out of a shop, and him and the owner were screaming insults at each other until he saw her out of the corner of her eye, and climbed to his feet. The shop owner was still screaming, but the man had gone silent, and was staring at River. He pushed the owner to the floor and began walking towards her. River ran, back behind the alleyway she'd used to get out from behind the buildings, and hid behind a dumpster at the corner of the back of a small furniture store. She could hear the man's footsteps coming up to her, heavy and moving quickly, but zig-zagging between the two buildings. She pulled a knife from her boot, knowing she had one chance at this. As the footsteps grew closer, they suddenly stopped, replaced by nothing but a nervous breath.

"Gorram headcase" he muttered to himself, before starting to say something else, but River wasn't going to wait to hear what it was. Before he'd had a chance to do anything more than blink she'd jumped out, fast enough to be nothing more than a blur to the man.

His eyes widened and he fell to his knees. He clutched at his throat, but it wasn't enough. His green t-shirt was now a deep red, and as River looked down at him she felt something in the back of her mind, something she couldn't place. She knew she didn't have time to think of it though. This was the fourth body she'd left in the past hour, but only the first one from the set of piuctures. She dragged him out of the alleyway and behind the building before seeing something attached to his belt. She took it and attached it to her own, before carrying on making her way to the docks.

"A grenade might be useful..." she thought to herself. 


	4. Chapter 4

As River made her way to the docks, hoping that the ship she was looking for was still there, she noticed something was off. At least half a dozen security guards surrounded the gate. She wasn't the type to make many mistakes, but as she saw them let three large men walk past and stop a woman who looked not unlike herself, she began to wonder if leaving the bartender alive, and with an excessive tip, was one of them. She didn't have a reason to kill him at the time, she thought, but looking back now that was a bit of an oversight.

As she looked around, she spotted a small hotel. The guards, she thought, wouldn't be much of a challenge, but she couldn't afford the attention. She could see the ship, near the back of the docks, but walking through the main entrance wasn't an option so she went over to the hotel and walked inside.

Above the door there was a small bell and River's entering rang out across the room, but to her it felt like the whole town probably heard it. The man behind the counter was old and tired looking, but was at least a foot taller than her, and easily as built as big as anyone she'd ever seen. The sound of the bell drew his attention, and he looked up from a book he was flicking through.

"I'd like a room." River said softly.

"Rooms are seventy credits a night." The man replied, his voice sounding as though his last meal had consisted mainly of sand.

River reached into her pocket and pulled out a roll of notes, counting them out and handing them to the man when she reached seventy. He took the money and pocketed it, before walking to the other end of the counter and taking a key off of the wall.

"What's your name?" he asked. He was merely trying to be nice, but River understandably became defensive, saying the first name that she could make up.

"Anna. Anna Anderson."

The man looked at her and squinted. He'd had many people come in over the years that had given a false name, and after a while the signs had become more and more apparent. He would occasionally question them, but he'd learnt that there are many reasons people wouldn't want to be known. He handed her a key, and led her to her room before returning back downstairs.

River unlocked the door and went inside. She turned on the light and looked around. The room was small and the smell of smoke was thick throughout it, so River went to the window and opened it. Outside, she could see over the whole of the docks, and smiled when she saw that Serenity was still there, far off at the back. At first, the light in the room was dim, but it had been slowly getting brighter since she entered, and so went over to turn on a lamp beside the bed. The lamp didn't work and for a split second River wondered if the lamp did it on purpose, before laughing to herself at the absurdity of that idea. Leaving the main light on she took another look outside the window and wondered how she'd get past all the guards undetected, before another idea hit her. She ran to the sink and opened the cupboard underneath, pulling out all of the bottles underneath and looking through their ingredients. 


	5. Chapter 5

River filled the sink with water, and poured in a small amount of chemicals. She hated the very idea of this, but knew she didn't have many options and that soon the room she was in would be filled with people looking for her. She took her knife and with it in one hand and her hair in the other, cut off anything that fell below her shoulders. She looked in the mirror and sighed, knowing that her new appearence reflected that she couldn't go back. She dropped the cut off hair into the sink and watched as the colour drained from it.

She put a cup into the sink and filled it with the mixture, before leaning over and pouring it across her hair, repeating the process more times than she'd planned. She plucked a single strand of hair from her head and looked at it, unable to see anything. the only sign that she held it at all was it snapping in her grip. She looked up into the mirror, her hair now had lost any colour it once held and was pure white. the reflection of the hotel room lights gave her hair a silver glow, the smell of the chemicals the only thing that it retained.

The smell and colourless appearence of her hair shocked her and as she ran her hands through it, her mind filled with the words of the people she left dying to get to this point. Ghosts now, she thought, the paleness of her hair put her amongst them and reminded her of one thing. Her only purpose now was death. She pulled the sheets from the bed and used them to fashion a makeshift rope before gathering her things and using it to climb down the distance from the window to the floor, and digging a hole beneath the chainlink fence surrouding the docks. 


	6. Chapter 6

River climbed through the hole in the fence, and looked around. Over in the distance, not far from the main entrance to the docks, two security guards were overseeing a man offloading crates from a small ship, checking what was inside. She weaved her way between dozens of ships, each seemed bigger than the last and it felt like her path would go on forever, until she found the one she was looking for.

The ramp was down, but aside from a few empty crates the cargo bay was empty. As she walked up it, running her hand along the wall as she did, she could hear whispers all around her. Some were easy to pick up on, and planning her path based on avoiding those rooms felt easy and she made her way up the stairs.

When she reached the hallway leading to the bridge she paused, listening for any movement. Everything was quiet, except for footsteps in the room at the far end. The rest of the doors were open, including the one that would lead to the ships controls. She softly made her way towards it, and entered. She pulled the grenade from her belt and placed it under one of the consoles, before tying a string around the pin and unwinding it on her way out. As she passed one of the doorways, a man walked in through the door at the other end in a hurry, his raised voice echoing down the hall.

"Captain, she's regained consciousness and she's asking for..."

As he looked down the hall, his voice fell to barely more than a whisper

"...River."

She paused at the mention of her name, her mind flashing back to the pictures she was given, and she ran toward the man. As he extended his arms she tugged on the string with one hand, and kicked him to the floor. Standing over him, she reached for her gun and held it to his head.

"River... I... You found us. You came back."

The sound of the explosion was deafening, and she knew how little time she had. At that moment all she wanted to do was run, but if she didn't do this, if she didn't finish the job, she'd be running forever, with nothing to run to. She closed her eyes and pulled the trigger, and began to walk back to the cargo bay.

A door opened behind her and she could feel herself being watched. Silently stared at by someone who couldn't fully take in what he saw. She kept her gun by her side but carried on walking, knowing whoever it was had nowhere to go. They were stranded, just as they'd left her. The man staring took a deep breath, and called out to her. River's eyes widened and she turned around.

"Albatross." 


	7. Chapter 7

Gotta say little'uns, other than the part 'bout how I got this damn scar, that's all from news reports I saw recovering in a hospital bed, and stories others told me. Can't say how true it all is but I can tell ya nobody saw River after that day. Heard the captain tried to track her down, same as I did, but our paths didn't cross again.

I came close a couple of times. Talk of her showing up places reached me now and then. Was someone else more oft' than not, or she was long gone. Ain't no finding that one 'less she wants to be found. Some day she might, but can't say how much of the person I knew'll be left when that happens. Hell, she was almost gone when I saw her that day.

"I've told ya everything, best as I remember it. After the explosion I got out of my room fast as I could, and she was in the hall standing over him, gun aimed down at his head. I heard the shot before I had time to speak. At first I didn't know who it was, that white hair... was like looking at a ghost. Something about how she walked off though, I knew it was her. I called out to her, and she turned back. Thought for sure she'd kill me there and then, but she didn't. Took a shot and missed. Cursed me out, screaming at me to kill her or she won't miss again. Truth be told, can't say I think she missed at all. Whatever went through her head at that moment, she wanted to die. But I froze, and she ran off. Whatever led her to do this, she's still family. I couldn't have killed her."

He reached out his hand, pulling her back to her feet, as she let the flowers fall to the ground

"You should have" she muttered under her breath. 


End file.
